Science Meets Magic
by EccentricRavenclaw
Summary: From new professors, and teenage crushes, to the return of Voldemort and a dark clone conspiracy, the clone's fifth year at Hogwarts is going to be a wild ride. *full summary inside*
1. Prelude

Full Summary:

Ethan Duncan was kidnapped by Death Eaters, and forced to create clones, however, in the wake of Voldemort's defeat, the girls are left in the care of Order of the Phoenix members. But why did the Voldemort want clones? What will happen to them when he returns to power? And how long will it take Clone Club to discover the truth? From new professors, and teenage crushes, to the return of Voldemort and a dark clone conspiracy, the clone's fifth year at Hogwarts is going to be a wild ride.

**Prelude: Scene One**

"I thought I might find you here," spoke a young woman with an Irish accent.

"Ah, Siobhan, I take it you have heard about the Potters," said Albus Dumbledore, turning away from the child he's just set on the doorstep of Number Four Privet Drive.

Siobhan continued to walk towards Albus, bringing with her a nervous looking bespectacled man.

"They were good people, good friends, it's a great loss to us all." She said sadly.

"That is not what you're here to discuss though, is it?"

"I'm afraid not. This is Ethan Duncan," she said, gesturing to the man next to her, who was looking up at the sky as if he hadn't seen the stars his entire life. Siobhan nudged his arm, and the man snapped his head back towards the earth and gave an awkward smile.

"Pleasure to meet you, Ethan," Dumbledore said, reaching out to shake his hand. Ethan flinched away at first, but then shook the headmaster's hand.

"We found him in an abandoned Death Eater safe house. After word got around that Voldemort had fallen, many Death Eaters fled their stations, and we've been, cleaning up after." Siobhan said, pausing for a moment. "Ethan was a researcher who was kidnapped by Death Eaters. We found him locked in a basement, with his experiments. We found…" Siobhan paused again

"What did you find, Siobhan? What were his experiments?" asked Dumbledore, his voice concerned.

Ethan looked up at Dumbledore, "Baby girls," he said, "I created baby girls."

**Prelude: Scene Two**

"Sarah! It is time to leave!" Siobhan shouts up the stairs, car keys in hand.

"I want to go to Hogwarts too," says a the little boy standing beside her "It's not fair Sarah gets to go without me."

"You'll go to Hogwarts next year Felix, you're not old enough yet, and besides, if your bloody sister doesn't get down here soon," Siobhan says, turning back towards the stairs and shouting "SHE WON'T BE GOING UNTIL NEXT YEAR EITHER!"

"I'm coming!" shouts an annoyed voice from up the stairs, accompanied with a couple loud bangs and footsteps.

"You're gonna chip the walls if you keep hitting them with your trunk Sarah" Sibhion says as Sarah banged her way down the stairs with her trunk.

"Yeah yeah yeah" Sarah says, heading out the front door, "let's get going? Yeah?"

The car ride to King's Cross seems like an eternity to Sarah. She's excited for her first year at Hogwarts, and to meet the sisters Mrs. S had told her about.

Sarah had always known she was adopted, but her adoptive mother hadn't told her about her sisters until the day she got her Hogwarts letter. That day she sat Sarah down and told her that she was one of four identical quadruplets, their father was unknown, and their mother had died during childbirth. After she found out, there was a lot of yelling and screaming, and Sarah still hadn't completely forgiven the woman for not telling her before, but things had calmed down.

Now, sitting in the car, Sarah realized she was actually going to miss Mrs. S, and of course her little brother Felix, but just as she started to feel sentimental, the car pulled up to King's Cross.

The small family made their way into the train station, and towards Platform Nine and Three Quarters, and, stopping only to ensure no muggles were watching, they walked through the bricks and onto the platform.

Parents and children were buzzing about, saying their goodbyes and getting ready to board the Hogwarts Express. As soon as Sarah and her family came through, a young girl caught sight of them and began moving through the crowd.

"Excuse me?" she said, walking right up to Sarah, whose eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Holy shite, they really did mean identical didn't they," Sarah said, looking at the girl. Her face was the same, but she was different. Her dark hair was far more straight and tidy than Sarah's, with bangs covering her forehead.

"My name is Alison," she said, shaking Sarah's hand and then looking at her wrinkled flannel shirt and combat boots. "and yours is…?"

"Sarah," she awkwardly replied.

"It's uh, nice to meet you, Sarah, and this must be your mother?" Alison replied, gesturing towards Siobhan.

"Yeah, this is Mrs. S, and this is Felix, my brother," Sarah said.

"It's nice to meet you Alison," Mrs. S said, smiling friendly and then turning to Sarah, "we should probably get going though love, you have fun and stay safe, don't forget to write to us."

"Yeah yeah, I won't. See ya Fee" Sarah said, turning to her little brother. Felix looked away, "bye Sarah" he said, wiping his eyes and sniffling.

Sarah pulled him into a hug "you'll be going to Hogwarts with me before you know it," she said, and Felix nodded into her shoulder. Felix walked back over to Mrs. S, and they said their final goodbyes, leaving Sarah and Alison to wait for the other sisters.

A few moments of awkward silence passed between the two, but it was quickly broken by a voice that yelled "Sestras!" from across the sea of people.

Another identical, this one with wild blonde hair, came running up to the girls.

"Hello, my name is Helena," she said, with a heavy accent.

The girls introduced themselves, just as a voice yelled that the train would be leaving soon.

"Where is the last one? There's supposed to be four of us right?" said Alison, nervously watching all the other kids scramble to get onto the train.

"Four sestras, yes" replied Helena with a series of enthusiastic nods.

"She's probably just running late," Sarah said, casually looking around.

Suddenly a girl with dreadlocks and glasses came running up to them. "Hey! Wow, this is trippy," she said, examining all the girls with intense interest.

"I like your hairs Sestra," Helena said, slowly reaching out to touch one of her dreadlocks.

"Hello, I'm Alison," Alison said, gently nudging Helena to the side, "we should really get on the train, it's just about to leave."

"Yeah, sorry, I'm kinda always late, are you from America?" Cosima replied.

"We can talk more on the train," Alison said, quickly turning and walking away.

"Someone's a little uptight," Sarah said, earning a laugh from Cosima as the other three sisters made their way to the train.

"I'm Sarah, by the way"

**Prelude: Scene Three**

The four girls sit in a compartment on the train, Sarah and Helena sit on one side, Cosima and Alison on the other. Helena munched on a licorice wand, surrounded by empty candy wrappers, and Cosima is talking enthusiastically, waving her hands.

"I'm just saying, it seems unlikely. I mean, first of all, _identical quadruplets_? Like, it's practically _unheard of._ The probability of an egg splitting _twice_, it's incredibly small."

"But it _could happen_," said Alison, who was slightly leaning away from Cosima so as not to be hit in the face with one of her energetic hands.

"Well yeah, it _could happen_, but I mean, a witch, dying due to childbirth? Yes, delivering quadruplets would have had more complications, but magic makes childbirth WAY less dangerous. Also, why split us all up? We were four orphans in London, why send one of us to Canada, one of us to America, one of us to Ukraine, and only leave one near London? It doesn't make sense. Usually they try to keep siblings together when they adopt them out, it seems unlikely they couldn't find a way to keep _any of us_ together, and they spread us out across the world. Doesn't this seem shady to any of you?" Cosima asked, looking around at the other girls.

"It does seem weird," said Sarah, crossing her arms and furrowing her brow, while Helena just shrugged and continued eating.

"Well what do you think happened then? If we're not quadruplets what are we?" asked Alison.

"Okay, so, I've given it some thought, hear me out guys." Cosima replied, leaning in a little bit, "I think we're clones."

"Clones? Are you high?" Alison yelled.

"Okay Cos, I mean, I agree maybe it's a little shady but clones seems way less likely." Sarah said, shaking her head.

"We are sestras," Helena said through a mouthful of Bertie Botts jelly beans.

"Alright, yeah, I admit, it's a little out there," said Cosima, relaxing back in her chair. "I still think it's a little weird though."

**AN: **So, this is mostly just to set the stage for the story, as you can probably already tell. The next chapter will start up in the clone's fifth year in Hogwarts. Each chapter will be broken up into scenes like this one was, so I can switch back and forth seeing as I have so many people to follow. It'll be a lot like an episode of a TV show in that respect. There will be Cophine in this, so don't worry. Also, Cal will be making an appearance, as well as other Harry Potter characters, mainly the golden trio, although it will not be a story about them, really, it's still going to focus on the clones. I hope you liked it, there's a lot more to come, and hopefully the next chapters will be a bit longer. Reviews are always appreciated (:


	2. Back To School

**Scene One**

"Hurry up Fee! We're gonna miss the bloody train!" Sarah yelled as the two siblings hastily made their way through the crowd.

"Well I'm sorry Sarah, but I'm just not as comfortable with elbowing people in the face as you are!" Felix retorted, trying to get past everyone with minimal physical contact, because you never know just where these people have been.

"Need some help?" asked a boy around Sarah's age, with a scruffy beard.

"No I'm fine thanks," replied Sarah as she struggled with her trunk and walked right past him.

"Jesus Sarah you don't have to be so rude, he was just trying to help," Felix said, glancing back at the boy as they stepped onto the train.

"Yeah well I don't need any help," Sarah stubbornly replied.

"What exactly is it that you have against Cal? I mean you shagged him last year and now you'll barely even speak to him!"

"Nothing, I don't wanna talk about Cal," Sarah said, making her way down the aisle, looking for her sisters.

"Alright, well, you don't want to talk, whatever. I'm going to go sit with Collin," and with a smirk and a wink Felix slipped into a compartment to talk to the small Ravenclaw boy.

Sarah kept walking until she found her sisters, slipping in to sit with them just as the train left the station.

"Sestra!" yelled Helena, offering her a licorice wand, which Sarah politely declined.

"Look who's late now!" said Cosima, laughing and giving her sister a hug.

"We were worried about you, what with everything going on…" Alison said.

"Oh yeah, could have been _killed be death eaters_" Sarah said sarcastically.

"That's not funny Sarah!" Alison said indignantly.

"Oh come on, you're not buying that Potter kid's bullshit are you?"

"I don't know what to believe!" said Alison, obviously stressed out over the possibility of the Dark Lord's return.

"Well I mean, if anyone would be a reliable source on what's going on with Old Voldy, it would be Harry, the kid's had to deal with him like, every year." Cosima said, though it was clear she wasn't quite sure herself.

"Potter tells the truth" Helena said, still chewing on some candy.

"Ooookay, thanks for that input Helena," replied Sarah.

"You are welcome sestra,"

"This is all just too much." Alison said, putting her head in her hands and sighing.

Cosima put her hand on Alison's shoulder, "it's gonna be okay Ali, I know Cedric was your friend, and I'm really sorry you lost him."

"And the year we have our OWLS too!" said Alison, looking up from her hands.

Sarah erupted into laughter, "OWLS, Alison? Seriously? That's what you're worried about? Jesus bloody Christ you never cease to amaze me."

"OWLS are important, Sarah! Unlike you, some of us actually care about our scholastic careers!"

Just then someone knocked on the door to their compartment.

"Uh, hey, Alison I've been looking all over for you, we're supposed to be with the other prefects, you didn't show up so I got worried," said the slightly chubby Hufflepuff boy who knocked on the door.

"Donnie! Right, sorry, honey, I came to check in with my sisters and got a little distracted, I uhm, let's go over there now I guess. I'll talk to you all later," Alison said as she hurried down the aisle with her boyfriend.

"Hufflepuff prefect. God, we're so different, all of us," Sarah said, sighing back into her seat.

"Yeah, we really are," Cosima agreed absently, as she watched a girl with curly blonde hair walk past their doors.

**Scene Two:**

"This year, we have two new professors joining us," Dumbledore announced, as the student body sat at their tables, anxiously awaiting the back to school feast. "I am proud to welcome Professor Umbridge, who will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts," a woman dressed in entirely too much pink stood up and smiled, "and Professor Leekie, who will be teaching Advanced Herbology," at this, an old man stood up and gave a small wave.

"Dude looks like a creepy ass skeleton," Sarah whispered to Art, her friend and fellow Gryffindor, who chuckled.

"Maybe pestilence," Art whispered back

"What the bloody hell is pestilence?"

"You know, pestilence? Disease? one of the four- ah whatever,"

"Do either of you have anything you would like to say to the students?" asked Dumbledore.

The woman in all pink walked up to the front of the dining hall and began making an exceptionally annoying speech.

Over at the Ravenclaw table Cosima whined "Come ooonn lady, I wanna eat."

"Would you like some silphium candy?" asked Luna Lovegood, offering her what looked like a small hard candy.

"You know, I don't know what that is but I'm hungry enough to not care," Cosima said, grabbing the candy.

"Cosima I don't know if you should" Scott started to say, but the candy was already in Cosima's mouth.

"Relax Scotty, Luna's not gonna poison me, oh wow this feels really good on my sore throat, thanks Luna" Cosima said, sucking on the candy.

"Silphium has many healing properties," Luna said, and then went back to reading her Quibbler. It seemed no one really wanted to listen to the dreadful professor's speech.

"Thank you for that," said Dumbledore, "Aldous, do you have any words you would like to say?"

"I do, in fact," said the old man, stepping up to take Umbridge's place.

"Huuuungry," moaned Helena at the Hufflepuff table, who was quickly hushed by Alison.

"We live in a world of magic," Leekie began, "and because of that, we are able to do _wonderful_ things, but often times we take this magic for granted, we let our reliance on it cause us to overlook other solutions to problems. I have spent years at the DYAD institute, studying both magical, and scientific solutions to problems our society faces, and my hope is that together, we can create a future where science and magic are not mutually exclusive, where we can use science and magic to create bold new inventions to better our lives."

"Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuungryyyyy," Helena moaned again.

"The possibilities for the future are endless, so long as we learn to look at things from all angles. I hope to see lots of you young students go on to work with scientists like me at the DYAD institute, and help as create a brighter future." Leekie went to sit back down, and food appeared on every table.

"The ministry is interfering at Hogwarts," Sarah overheard as she began piling food onto her plate. She looked around and saw that it was Hermione Granger talking.

"Wait, was that old bat from the Ministry?" Sarah asked.

Hermione sighed, "no, Umbridge was, honestly Sarah, do you ever listen when a professor is talking?"

"I try not to," Sarah replied, stuffing food into her mouth.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Well, you might want to change that, I'm not going to write any more of your papers this year, I have OWLS to study for, and I'm a prefect, I don't have time."

"Aw come on, what are roomies for?"

"Disrupting your sleeping patterns by staying up all night with the scruffy Ravenclaw boy, apparently" Hermione bit back as Harry and Ron erupted into laughter.

"Nice one Hermione," Harry said raising his hand up for a high five. Hermione ignored him, however, looking guilty at Sarah as she realized she'd hit a sore subject.

"Piss off," Sarah said, turning away.

"Sarah and Cal sittin in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G" Fred and George started singing in unison.

"You slept with Cal?" Art asked.

"I don't wanna talk about Cal,"

"Oh was he that bad?" asked Ron, still laughing.

"Beard like that, he's gotta be compensating for something," Seamus said.

"Guys, she said she didn't want to talk about him," said Neville, defiant but awkward.

"Thanks," Sarah said, as everyone else guiltily broke into side conversations about other things.

"Who are you staring at Cosima?" asked Scott with a mouthful of food.

"Huh? No one," Cosima said, looking away from the Slytherin table and back at her food.

"Come on, we're best friends Cosima, if you have a crush on someone you can tell me."

"Shut up,"

"Is it that boy you were partners with in Potions last year?"

"No, it is _definitely_ not the boy I was partners with in Potions last year," Cosima said, glancing around nervously.

"So you admit that you do have a crush on somebody!" Scott said enthusiastically.

"Jesus keep it down Scott, announce it to the whole world why don't you?"

"Who is he?"

"It's complicated Scott, can we talk about something else?"

"Okay," Scott said slowly, "but I'm still gonna figure it out,"

Cosima sighed and glanced back over at the Slytherin table, to the girl with the perfect curls and the French accent. "I really, really doubt that Scott."

"Hey Cosima, do you know what's going on with Sarah, why she's ignoring me?" Cal asked, sitting down next to her.

"Cal, look, you're a nice guy, but there's no way I'm getting involved in whatever you two have going on, sorry dude," Cosima replied, looking sympathetically at Cal.

"Okay, yeah, I understand, thanks anyways," he said, glancing over to the Gryffindor table.

Cosima took the opportunity to continue to stare at the Slytherin table.

"I'm surrounded by love sick puppies," Scott complained, sighing and stuffing more food in his mouth.

"I'm not the puppy," Cosima murmered to herself.

"So what do you guys think of the new Herbology professor?" Scott asked, eager to have a conversation instead of sitting in silence while Cosima and Cal stared off into space.

"He seems interesting," said Cosima, apparently awoken from her trance like state, "I mean, how long have I been saying we need to use both magic AND science, and now finally the staff is catching on,"

"Yeah I mean, that's how I made me drone pollinators, Cal said, I used engineering to make them fly, but I used magic to transport the pollen from the holding tanks to the drones, so they don't have to carry all of the load at once, they can fly faster,"

"That's genius, keep most of the pollen in a holding tank so the drone can fly faster, and teleport it to the drone so it doesn't need to come back for refills," Scott said through a mouthful of food.

"Yeah, the only problem is a small percentage of the pollen keeps teleporting into the wrong components and gums up the machine, they don't last as long as the should, I've been tryingto find a way to make the teleportation more accurate," Cal said, pulling out a piece of paper with some work on it.

The three Ravenclaws abandoned their food and huddled around the paper, pointing and conversing, trying to find a solution to the problem.

"Donnie, would you grab me some more potatoes," Alison asked.

"No problem," Donnie said as he took her plate and started piling the scalloped potatoes onto her plate.

"Oh no, that's too much Donnie," she said quickly, and Helena took that as an invitation to grab some of them and put them on her own plate, much to Donnie's confusion.

"Trying to watch your weight Ali?" asked Aynsley, a blonde girl with a smile one could only describe as bitchy.

"Should I be?" asked Alison, accusation in her voice.

"Oh , no sweetie, of course not, you look best with a little bit of pudge,"

"Excuse me?" Alison whisper shouted.

"How was your summer, honey?" asked Donnie, attempting to change the subject before there was a fist fight.

"It was fine," Alison said, still glaring at Aynsley.

Aynsley seemed completely unfazed by this, and started excitedly ranting about how amazing her summer was, while Alison and Donnie absently smiled and nodded along. Just as she was finishing her fifth story about the hilarious thing her Gryffindor boyfriend Chad said, Helena let out a loud belch.

"Helena! Where are your manners?" Alison asked, embarrassed by her identical sister's unruly behavior.

"Excuse me," Helena mumbled through a mouthful of chicken.

"I honestly don't know how you put up with her Ali, so uncivilized," Aynsley said.

"You know what Aynsley, I've had about enough of your effing rudeness." Alison said, getting louder and angrier, "veiled insults are insults all the same. I don't have to put up with this. If Chad is so effing hilarious why don't you go sit with him because I think I speak for everyone here when I say we've had enough of you making everyone feel bad about themselves. We're a pretty accepting group, Aynsley, but we don't have to accept someone he constantly sits here and picks apart every detail of our lives and criticizes us. So you can leave."

Aynsley looked around at the other Hufflepuffs in shock, and upon seeing everyone slowly nod in agreement, she got up and stormed out.

"Good riddance," said Hannah Abbott, along with the other Hufflepuff's vague comments of appreciation for Aynsley's absence.

"Thank you sestra," Helena said, looking over at her sister with childlike eyes.

"We stick together," said Alison, stabbing a potato with her fork and chewing it deliberately.

**Scene Three:**

Sarah leaned up against a wall, laughing to herself as she watched Alison and Donnie try to lead the first year Hufflepuffs, and Helena, to the Hufflepuff common room.

"Hey, Sarah," Cal said, walking up next to her.

"I don't wanna talk Cal,"

"Why? I mean, I thought we really had something, last year, and then you wouldn't talk to me all the sudden and you didn't answer any of my letters over the summer." Cal brought is hand up to rub the back of his head, looking down a little bit. "I just, I really like you Sarah."

"It's complicated Cal," Sarah sighed, suddenly looking like she might cry.

"Did I say something to upset you? I'm sorry Sarah, I just want to know what's going on,"

"Look I don't want to talk about it, okay? Just leave me alone." Sarah said, gritting her jaw to try to keep herself together. She took one last look at Cal and walked away, picking up her face the further away from him she got.

"Sarah? Sarah are you okay?" Felix asked, noticing Sarah walk past him quickly. He turned to see Cal behind her, looking confused and leaning against a wall. Felix ran after Sarah worriedly.

"Sarah! Sarah stop! What's going on?" Felix asked, catching up to Sarah and stopping her.

"Sarah turned around, falling into Felix with a tear stained face, and started quietly sobbing into her brother's shoulder.

Felix stroked her hair and hugged her, "what's going on with you Sarah? What did Cal do?"

"Cal didn't do anything," Sarah replied, her voice muffled "I just, I don't want to talk about it Fee."

"You don't have to right now, but you will eventually Sarah, you can't keep this all to yourself, you have three sisters and one amazing brother to talk to, yeah? You're gonna be okay Sarah, whatever it is that happened, we'll get through it together."

Sarah broke the hug and looked up at him, sniffling and wiping her eyes. "Okay, eventually," she said.

"Now let's get you over to Show-Off Tower so you can get a good night's rest," Felix said, walking Sarah up the nearest immobile flight of stairs.

Sarah snorted, "Show-Off Tower huh, alright, but then you gotta get back to Evil Bitch Dungeon."

Felix smiled and playfully pushed Sarah's shoulder with his own, "now she's back."

"Co-si-ma!" a voice yelled from behind Cosima as she and Scott exited the great hall. She turned around to see the beautiful French girl she had been staring at all night walking towards her.

"Delphine!" she shouted, her mouth cracking into a wide toothy grin. She turned to Scott and told him she'd meet see him tomorrow before bouncing over to go talk to Delphine.

"So I heard you will be taking Advanced Herbology," said Delphine, adjusting her green tie.

"Oh, yeah, Professor Sprout recommended me for it," Cosima said, smiling like a dork. "are you taking it too?"

"Oh, yes, yes, I will be there,"

"Rad, you wanna be partners again? We were pretty unstoppable in Charms last year,"

Delphine giggled, "yes, we were very good partners, I would like that very much," she said, nodding her head enthusiastically.

"Then it's settled! Team Canada for the win!" Cosima said, fist bumping the air.

"Team Canada?" Delphine asked, amused.

"Totes! Cause like, you're French, and I'm American, and Canada is basically Frenchified America!" Cosima said.

"That it is," Delphine said, laughing. "So I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Oui" Cosima said, earning yet another giggle from Delphine.

"Au revoir," Delphine said, kissing the shorter girl on each cheek.

"Au revoir" Cosima quietly replied, watching Delphine as she left.


	3. New Professors

**AN: **This story will discuss abortion, self-harm, and child abuse. I know these are sensitive subjects, so please be careful if these are things that could trigger you in any way.

Alison woke up early, slipping off her sleep mask and putting on her robes. Just as she was about to wake up Helena, she heard soft cries from her bed, mumbled words she couldn't quite comprehend. Walking over to Helena, she realized she was twitching and crying out in her sleep.

"Helena? Helena wake up, you're having a nightmare," she said softly, sitting down on the side of her bed and gently putting her hand on the girl's shoulder. When Helena still didn't wake she nudged her shoulder a little bit, calling out her name again. This time Helena shot up with a wild look in her eyes, immediately pulling away from Alison and towards the other side of the bed.

"Helena it's just me, you were having another nightmare," Alison said softly. It took a few seconds for Helena to look at Alison, and not through her, but when she finally did, she seemed to calm down. "What was your nightmare about?" Alison asked, not expecting a clear answer. This had been happening since their first year at Hogwarts, and Helena still hadn't said what her nightmares were about.

"It was nothing. We are going to get breakfast?" she replied, slipping out of bed and looking for her robes.

"Helena, whatever it is, you can tell me, you can tell any of us, we're here for you," Alison said, watching Helena as she busied herself with getting ready, avoiding eye contact. Helena slipped behind the curtain of her four poster bed to get dressed, and Alison followed her, not ready to let the issue go.

"Helena, you've been having nightmares every year since we met, there's obviously something going on you're not telling us about. Helena? Helena? What is that?" she asked, shocked as she caught sight of Helena's wrists, covered in scars.

Helena turned towards her, startled by her presence. She quickly pulled on her sweater, covering up her wrists and turning away.

"Helena, did you- have you been?" Alison started to ask, extremely worried about her sister.

"Breakfast," Helena said as she quickly grabbed her things and left their dorm, leaving Alison standing by her bed, watching her go with shock and concern on her face.

Eventually, Alison collected came to her senses, walking over to look through Helena's things. After a few minutes, she found what she was looking for: a small razor blade shoved into the side for her trunk. Her fears having been confirmed, Alison quickly brought out her wand and vanished the object. Sighing and touching her face with her hands worriedly, she hurried out to the great hall, hoping to find Helena still eating breakfast.

Upon entering the great hall she made a bee line for the Hufflepuff table, looking for a wild head of blonde curls. Suddenly her search was interrupted, however.

"I want you to know that I forgive you, Ali," Aynsley said, appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

"You- what?" Alison replied, peering over Aynsley's shoulder to continue her search for her sister.

"I forgive you, sweetie, for all those things you said yesterday. I know you didn't mean it, you're just stressed out, I know 5th year is a tough year, what with OWLS and everything, but you need to learn not to take it out on others, or people will start to dislike you. I mean, not me, but I've heard other people talking. I care about you sweetie, I just wanna let you know that I'm here for you no matter what other people are saying. Are you listening to me?" Aynsley asked, realizing Alison wasn't even bothering to look at her as she spoke, preoccupied with looking for Helena.

"Yeah, uh huh," Alison said, still not looking at Aynsley "if you'll excuse me though, I have to go," and with that Alison walked away, leaving Aynsley shocked and offended.

Alison made her way to where Helena was sitting, slipping into the seat next to her. "Helena? We need to talk," she said delicately, putting her hand on Helena's shoulder.

"About what?" Helena said, focusing on her pile of food.

"I know you've been, harming yourself. I found your uh, razor," Alison said, pausing between words nervously. "Whatever your nightmares are about, whatever's going on with you, you can talk to me."

"I do not want to talk." Helena said, getting up and abandoning her plate of food. "I must go retrieve something I have forgotten in our room. I will see you in class."

Alison watched again as Helena left, not knowing how to stop her. Worried, Alison made her way to the Gryffindor table, deciding to take some of her own advice and talk to her sisters.

"Sarah, we need to talk," Alison said, yanking her away from the table where she had been laughing and joking with her friends.

"Oi, what the hell?!" Sarah replied, annoyed but letting Alison pull her away.

"It's about Helena," Alison said, pulling her out of the great hall, and calling over to Cosima, who had just arrived.

"What's going?" Cosima asked, making her way to her sisters.

"It's Helena," Alison said, pausing, unsure of how to continue.

"Well what about Helena?" Sarah asked, annoyed.

Alison paused again, and the other two girls seemed to realize how important the situation was.

"What's going on with Helena?" Cosima asked slowly, "is she okay?"

"You know how I told you she has nightmares?" Alison said, continuing after the other two nodded in response. "She still has them, they're always worst when we first come back to school. She was having one this morning, and when I asked her about it, I saw, on her wrists," Alison paused, but the Sarah and Cosima seemed to understand.

"She's been cutting?" Cosima asked, concern in her voice.

"Bloody hell," Sarah replied, cradling her forehead into her hands.

"Did you talk to her about it?"

"Of course I did Cosima, but she won't say anything! I don't know what to do!" Alison whisper yelled, widening her eyes and holding her hands in the air exasperatedly.

"Well, maybe one of us should try talking to her? Honestly she seems the closest with Sarah."

"Me? I don't know how to handle this shit Cos! What if I say something wrong and fuck things up worse?" Sarah said

"How could you eff this up worse?" Alison asked, "I think it's worth a try, she needs to talk to someone."

"Okay," Sarah sighed, running her hands through her hair. "I'll give it a go, but I can't promise anything."

"The best thing is to make sure she knows we're here for her," Cosima said, shifting her weight nervously. "As long as she knows that, she'll talk to us when she's ready."

"Okay," Alison said, nodding, "well I uh, have to go to class, so I'll see you guys later?"

"Yeah," Sarah and Cosima said, still looking worried.

"Nice of you to join us, Cosima," Professor Leekie said as Cosima awkwardly walked into the already full class room.

"Uh, yeah, sorry, I was, there was some stuff," Cosima stuttered, looking around at the classroom. The tables were lined up on every side of the various glass plant boxes that were spread out among the room. Each side had two chairs, and a small shelf underneath the tables for storing various tools they would be using.

"Well, grab a text book and get seated, better late than never," he said, chuckling and waving her towards a shelf stacked with textbooks and continued talking about the syllabus.

Cosima quickly grabbed a book and made her way towards Delphine, who was waving to an empty seat next to her.

"You saved me a seat!" Cosima said, her mouth grinning, but the rest of her face still preoccupied with concern for her sister.

"Yes well I've become accustom to your tardiness," Delphine said, smiling back, though her smile quickly faded. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Late _and_ disruptive. You are going to be a handful aren't you?" the Professor said jokingly, interrupting Cosima's reply.

"Sorry, just chatting about grading policies," Cosima replied sarcastically.

"I know, you're all probably tired of hearing about grading policies and class rules," Leekie said, "that's why I've planned for us to do something fun today. See, at the DYAD we like to take magical problems, and find non-magical solutions, and that is exactly what we are going to be doing today."

The class suddenly perked up, listening intently to Leekie's words.

"You'll see there is Devil's Snare in all of your plant boxes, and above that, you'll see that there are floating spheres. These spheres are delicate, and they're filled with a gas that has an incredibly displeasing odor, and if broken, they will make things very unpleasant for whichever unlucky couple are seated nearest to it. In a few moments, I'm going to release these spheres into the Devil's Snare, and you must find a way to get it to fall through without breaking it."

"Well that's easy! Devil's snare, it's deadly fun, but will sulk in the sun. We just use our wands to apply light to it," said a student from the front of the class.

"Oh but here's the catch, I want you to do it without your wands."

The class was stunned silent, having always relied on magic, being asked to accomplish a task without it left them dumbfounded.

"You will have about thirty seconds to figure out a solution after the spheres are dropped," Leekie said, smiling at the sea of confused students. He then raised his wand and all of the spheres dropped.

The class broke out into a frenzy, students yelling at each other, and one reaching his hand into the Devil's Snare and screaming when it started pulling him in.

Delphine and Cosima quickly turned to each other.

"Okay, so, it hates sunlight, but we can't use our wands," Delphine said quickly.

"Yeah, so, how do we get sunlight to it without magic?" Cosima said, looking around under her desk for anything useful. She piled up the objects she found on top of the desk and examined them.

She held up a pair of scissors and looked at Delphine,

"Non, the scissors would just get stuck in the plant," Delphine relpied, looking through the objects with Cosima.

"Yeah, you're probably right, ummm, oh! I got it!" Cosima said, pulling up a magnifying glass and hovering it above the Devil's Snare. When nothing happened she looked around the room. "There's not enough light," she said, looking at the nearest window, which was a few yards away.

Delphine frantically searched through the pile of objects again, and, finding a mirror, she ran over to the window. Cosima, immediately realizing what she was doing, lined up the magnifying glass towards the beam of light Delphine was reflecting towards her. As soon as it was lined up, the devils snare started shrinking away from the sphere, and as the other spheres began breaking throughout the room, causing students to gag from the smell, Cosima and Delphine's slowly slid through the snare.

"Victory!" yelled Cosima, raising her hands in the air as Delphine came back over to the table.

"We did it!" Delphine said, picking up the sphere and delicately setting it on their table.

"Hell yeah we did! High five dude," Cosima said, high fiving Delphine with the hand she was still holding the magnifying glass in. "Oh shit!" she said as the glass fell onto their table, breaking their sphere and quickly releasing the foul smelling gas.

The girls covered their faces and ran away from the table gagging, their gags quickly turned into laughs however, the girls clutching each other for support as the doubled over laughing.

We did it?" Cosima said sheepishly, still giggling.

"You are such a klutz," said Delphine playfully, still holding onto Cosima's arm.

"Congratulations! Even though your sphere did break, you we still technically successful," said Professor Leekie, walking up to the girls with a grin on his face. "The rest of you are dismissed, I expect everyone who was unsuccessful in this task, which is everyone besides Cosima and Delphine, to write me a two page essay on why you were unable to find a solution without magic."

The class groaned and slowly filed out of the room while Leekie turned his attention to the two still giggling girls. "You know, we need more bright young minds like yours at the DYAD institute, you could be working on exciting new projects there in just a few years."

"That sounds very, interesting," Delphine said, nodding her head.

"You mentioned DYAD during your speech on the first day of school, so I uh, did a little research. You used to be called Neolution?" Cosima asked, with an accusatory hint in her voice.

"Ah yes, that was a long time ago, when the institute was under different leadership." Leekie replied, shifting his weight a little.

"And that leadership was Death Eaters?" Cosima asked, the accusation no longer a hint.

Leekie sighed, "I can assure you, the decisions that Neolution made, the decision to side with You-Know-Who, do not reflect the philosophies of DYAD, after The Dark Lord's defeat, our company eradicated any trace of that way of thinking, and we renamed ourselves, because we didn't want to be associated with that."

"So did you work with DYAD while it was still called Neolution?" Cosima asked, staring the professor down.

"Unfortunately, yes, I did. You have to understand, Cosima, it was a dark time. I didn't agree with the decisions the company made, but I stayed out of fear, a cowardly decision I regret to this day. But now that we've made changes, I'm proud to work for DYAD, and I hope you two will consider working there as well. You could do wonderful things there, I'm sure of it." Leekie said enthusiastically.

"We will, consider it," Delphine said, hooking her arm in Cosima's and starting to leave.

"Yeah," Cosima said, letting Delphine pull her out of the room.

"So what do you think? About DYAD?" Delphine asked Cosima as they walked back to the castle.

"It seems pretty cool, honestly. I mean, as long as he's right about no longer having any Death Eater ties,"

"It would be very exciting to be working on advanced, top secret programs," Delphine said, giggling at "top secret".

"Yeah totally! I mean we could do a lot of hella cool stuff there, it's definitely something to consider," Cosima said, bumping up next to Delphine, their arms still intertwined.

"Yes, hella cool stuff," Delphine said jokingly, turning slightly towards Cosima, a smile plastered on her face. Cosima smiled back at her, head tilting slightly to the side as they stopped walking, smiling and staring at each other.

They kept smiling and staring at each other for what seemed like several minutes, but in reality was only a few seconds, before Delphine reluctantly spoke up.

"I have to go," she said, slowly slipping her arm out of Cosima's, sending shockwaves through her skin. "I have Ancient Runes in a couple of minutes."

"Oh right-right-right, yeah, well I'll uh, see you in Herbology next week then?" Cosima asked, nervously bouncing her head around.

"Maybe we could get together before then? Go over some of the material for Herbology, you know, to get prepared?" Delphine asked.

"Oh yeah! That would be awesome!" Cosima said enthusiastically.

"How about tomorrow evening? In the library?" Delphine asked.

"Yeah, that sounds, great! Tomorrow it is!" Cosima said.

"I will see you then," Delphine said happily, slowly turning away and leaving.

Cosima crossed her arms, biting her lip as she watched Delphine leave, smiling at the thought of studying with the beautiful girl tomorrow.

Sarah walked into her Defense Against The Dark Arts Class and quickly slumped down into a seat in the back of the room. All around her, students were talking to each other, wondering what the new DADA teacher was going to be like, but Sarah had other concerns.

She had been worried about Helena all day, unsure what the best way to approach her would be. She was concerned for her sister, and wanted to talk to her about whatever it was that was going on with her, but she also didn't want to scare her off and alienate her. She was also scared of what they might find out. Obviously something happened to Helena, to give her nightmares for years on end, and to make her harm herself, and Sarah wasn't sure she wanted to find out what.

Sarah suddenly remembered the other inevitable conversation looming in her future, the one with Cal. She knew she couldn't put him off forever, sooner or later she would have to tell him, he hadn't done anything wrong, he deserved to know what happened.

"Well, good afternoon," said the astonishingly pink Professor Umbridge, disrupting Sarah's thoughts. The professor got a few mumbled replies from the class, obviously tired from their first day back at school.

"_That_ won't do now, will it?" Umbridge said, her voice sounding like nails on a chalk board, making Sarah cringe. The shrill woman then instructed the class to say good afternoon back to her, which Sarah couldn't help but thinking seemed a little pathetic.

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," chanted the entire class, minus Sarah. She knew it was petty, childish even, but Sarah couldn't stand doing what people told her to do, and this woman was far from an exception.

Umbridge glared at her, noticing she wasn't saying it back, but chose to ignore it, at least for the time being. Sarah knew however that she was already on this teacher's list of kids to keep an eye on. After breaking eye contact with Sarah, she went on to tell the class to put their wands away, earning a collective groan from the students.

Defense Against The Dark Arts had become Sarah's favorite class when Lupin was the teacher, and she enjoyed it with Fake Moody too, but she was quickly coming to realize that she wouldn't like Umbridge's version of the class.

The class was told to copy down a few sentences, which Sarah reluctantly did, figuring she could at least start off the year trying to be a semi-okay student. While they were copying things down, Sarah only vaguely listened to Umbridge's monologue, hearing something about "ministry approved methods" and immediately rolling her eyes and realizing Hermione had been right about the ministry intervening.

After they copied the sentences, they were instructed to read a chapter from their book, which is when Sarah decided that she was done trying to be a "semi-okay" student and instead stuck her wand in her sleeve, and began carving profanities into her desk.

After carving a particularly strong wizard swear into the desk, she glanced up to see Hermione raising her hand, trying to get Umbridge's attention while half of the class watched. The professor called on her, and Hermione starting asking her about her course objectives, and, by the tone of her voice, Sarah could tell she was not pleased with the way Umbridge was running her class already. Abandoning her carving work, Sarah leaned back in her desk to enjoy the show she knew was about to unfold.

"There's nothing written about _using_ defensive spells," Hermione said. The entire class looked up at the course objectives written on the blackboard.

"_Using _defensive spells? Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to _use _a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?" Umbridge replied, as if the notion of using defensive spells was a joke.

Sarah was pissed. A Defense Against The Dark Arts class that wasn't actually going to teach them how to defend themselves from the dark arts? This reply angered her enough to break her moody silence.

"I can't speak for the whole class but I know my ears are being attacked by your voice right now," she said, interrupting Ron, who had been about to say something. The whole class chuckled in agreement, as Umbridge narrowed her eyes and glared at Sarah. "And so what if we aren't gonna get attacked _in your class_ we could get attacked anywhere, we need to learn how to defend ourselves!"

"What in the world would you children need to defend yourselves from?" Umbridge asked an a sickly sweet voice.

This time it was Harry who spoke up, "uhm, I don't know, maybe _Lord Voldemort_?"

Various students throughout the room gasped, as Umbridge stared at Harry, taking her time before replying, "Now let me make a few things quite plain. You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead-"

"He wasn't dead, but yeah he's back," interrupted Harry

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Potter! As I was saying, you have been informed that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again, _this is a lie_."

"It is NOT a lie! I saw him, I fought him!" Harry shouted indignantly.

"Look lady," Sarah said, leaning forward in her seat. "It doesn't matter if Potter's crazy or not, it doesn't matter if Voldemort's back our not. There are still bad people in the world! If you don't want to teach us how to defend ourselves from the dark arts, then why in the bloody hell did you decide to start teaching Defense Against The Dark Arts?!"

"There is no one out there who would want to harm children such as yourself, I assure you Ms. Manning, and to insinuate that there is, to scare your peers with such horrendous lies, is simply unacceptable. That will be another ten points from Gryffindor, and I expect to see you, and Potter in detention, tomorrow evening, at five o'clock, in my office." Umbridge said, "I simply cannot have students spreading these kinds of lies about dark witches and wizards in my classroom. I will not allow it, please, continue your reading."

Umbridge started to walk back towards her desk, but Harry stood up, shouting at her," So, according to you, Cedric Diggory died of his own accord, did he?"

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident,"

"It was murder! Voldemort killed him and you know it!" Harry shouted back, his voice, as well as his body shaking with emotion.

In that moment, Sarah knew he was telling the truth, she could see it in his face, she could hear it in his voice, she could feel it in her gut. She realized that Harry had lost a friend to the man who had killed his parents, and now everyone thought he was crazy, and refused to believe him.

Sarah stood up with Harry "He's right! There are dangers out there that we need to protect ourselves from and you need to do your damn job and teach us how, you frog faced bitch!"

Umbridge calmly walked to her desk and began writing on pink parchment. When she was done writing she rolled it up and sealed it with magic, handing it to Harry.

"I want you and Ms. Manning to bring that to Professor McGonagall," she said, and Harry immediately stormed out of the room, Sarah following behind, glaring at Umbridge the whole time.

When she got out of the classroom she saw Harry waiting for her.

"Thanks for having my back in there," he said awkwardly, still shaken from before, "even if you don't believe me about, you know, it's nice to have someone on my side about anything, honestly."

"I do believe you. I mean, I didn't before, I actually thought you were nuts, but the way you were talking in there, there's no way you're lying." Sarah said.

"Well, thanks then," Harry said sincerely, "we should probably get this to McGonagall though,"

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna pass on that, you have fun though," Sarah said sarcastically.

"Well what if the note says you were supposed to be with me, what am I supposed to say?"

"Tell her I didn't wanna come, I don't care," Sarah said, walking away and leaving Harry to deal with McGonagall's wrath.

Sarah wandered the castle, trying, and failing, to not think about all the things that were bugging her. She turned a corridor and quickly ran into Cal, cursing her bad luck. Just who she least wanted to run into.

"Sarah! I'm sorry," he said, stepping back and giving her space.

"No it's my fault, wasn't watching where I was going," Sarah said.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" Cal asked

"I could ask you the same,"

"I have a free period, I'm supposed to be using it to keep up with my school work from my muggle school, but they haven't sent me any of my assignments yet," Cal said, a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Oh right, Boy Genius graduates from magic and muggle schools at the same time," Sarah said laughing.

"So why aren't you in class?"

"I yelled at that Umbridge woman, and got sent out to talk to McGonagall, which I declined to actually do,"

"Oh yeah, I heard she's pretty bad, I'll have her tomorrow. Anyways, uhm, I'm sorry about the other day, being so pushy, I don't want to upset you, and I'm sorry if I did or said anything that hurt you," Cal said sincerely.

"No Cal, it's not, it's not anything you've done. I- you have the right to know it's just, god" Sarah sighed, running her hands through her hair.

"What is it Sarah? You can talk to me," Cal said, looking like he might take a step towards her but ultimately deciding against it.

"I know I can't put this off forever,"

"Then tell me."

"Cal, last year, when we, when we were together, I-" Sarah paused nervously while Cal stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

"I got pregnant, Cal. I got pregnant and I had an abortion." Sarah said quickly, forcing herself to spit the words out while tears started to collect in her eyes.

"Oh my god, Sarah, why didn't you tell me?" Cal asked, reaching out to comfort her.

Sarah backed away from him quickly, tears starting to spill down her face "I don't know, it all just, happened so fast. School had just ended and I started feeling sick so I went to St. Mungo's and they told me I was pregnant. I didn't know what to do. I asked them about, about getting rid of it and they said it would be quick and painless, and that I could go on and live the rest of my life. I can't, I don't know how to take care of a baby Cal, it was my best option. I had to."

"If that's what you decided is best, there's nothing wrong with that Sarah, that's your decision, I just wish you had told me so I could have been there for you, so you wouldn't have had to go through that alone." Cal said.

Sarah looked up at him with tear stained eyes, "you're not, angry about it?" she asked.

"Of course not, you didn't do anything wrong Sarah,"

Sarah took a step towards him, letting him wrap his arms around her and leaning into the hug, and they stood there holding each other until they heard footsteps in the corridor perpendicular to them.

"Harry, I want you to keep an eye on Sarah," they overheard, the two of them quickly leaning against the wall and listening to the conversation.

"Her and her sisters, they were created in an unnatural way, and with the worst of intentions, on the orders of Lord Voldemort himself. They could have something very dark inside them, and I want you to be careful."

"I'm sorry Professor McGonagall, what do you mean, Lord Voldemort created them?"

"I'm afraid that's all I can tell you Harry, just, keep an eye on Sarah during your classes, and your detentions, tell me if you see anything strange, anything out of the ordinary. Can you do that?"

"Yes, Professor."

Sarah and Cal looked at each other with wide eyes as the speakers passed by them without a second glance.

"Cosima was right," Sarah whispered.


	4. The Order Of The Phoenix

"Sarah, why don't you trust me?" Cal asked, following Sarah down the castle hallway. It was the day after they had heard Harry and McGonagall's conversation, and Sarah had arranged a meeting with all of her siblings, before lunch, but after their morning classes, a meeting that Cal was not invited to, though he didn't seem to get that.

"It's not that I don't trust you, it's that this doesn't involve you. We don't know what this is about, it's best if you stay out of it for now," came Sarah's reply as she approached the door of an empty classroom.

"Girls only, sorry Cal," Alison said, poking her head out into the corridor, pulling Sarah into the classroom. "I just want to help," Cal said, but it was too late, as Alison slammed the door in his face.

Sarah walked into the room to see her siblings sitting atop the desks, arranged to form a circle. Cosima was sitting with her legs dangling over the edge, swinging back and forth, and looking up from a book; Helena was sitting in a similar way, though her legs were moving much more energetically, and she was chewing on a licorice wand; and Felix was drawing designs on his desk with his wands, colorful lines glowing on the dull table top.

"You know, just because I'm gay doesn't make me any less male," Felix said, not looking up from his artwork, but still slightly offended at Alison's words.

"Sorry Felix, family only, I guess," Alison said, taking her seat next to Felix and patting his shoulder.

"So what is this about, Sarah?" Cosima asked, setting her book down, eager to discuss whatever it was Sarah had called them together for.

Sarah sighed and sat down on a desk, bringing her feet up with her, and began to explain the conversation between Harry and Professor McGonagall that she and Cal had overheard the day before.

"We were 'created'…" Cosima whispered to herself, lost in her own thoughts.

"By YOU-KNOW-WHO?" Alison shrieked, looking around at the other's stunned faces.

Helena had stopped chewing on her candy, "We have darkness inside us," she said, staring off into space with a strange expression on her face.

"No, you don't. Whatever that old bat thinks you are, you're not. I've known Sarah my whole life, I would have noticed if you were secretly some evil death eater weapon. I'm a Slytherin for Christ's sake, I know what I'm talking about." Felix said, turning towards his sister.

"Created," Cosima said, louder this time, "we were created. Do you know what this means? We're not quadruplets; we're clones, just like I said on the train before our first year!" Cosima was beginning to wave her hands energetically, and her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Just because Sarah overheard Professor McGonagall talking about us and she used the word 'created' does NOT mean we are clones, Cosima! That's insane- completely insane!" Alison said, bringing one of her hands up to her cheek while shaking her head.

"She said created, unnaturally created, right Sarah?" Cosima asked, continuing when Sarah gave her a slow nod, "What else could we be? It makes the most sense!"

"We are not sestras?" Helena asked, her expression becoming increasingly worried.

"We'll always be sisters, no matter what else we are," Alison said to Helena indignantly, who seemed somewhat comforted by her sister's words.

"Why would Voldemort create us though? What use would we be to him?" Sarah asked, and the room fell silent for a moment.

"You have detention with Harry tonight, right?" Cosima asked, breaking the silence. Sarah nodded her head in response and Cosima continued, "he's supposed to be watching you, but he doesn't know you know, so you have to watch him, see if he knows anything else. You're our in, Sarah, we have to figure out what this is all about."

"How the hell am I supposed to figure out if he knows anything just by being in detention with him, Cos?"

"I don't know, ask him questions? But you can't be too obvious, or he'll know,"

"Oh hello Harry, do you know anything about why my clones and I were created? I mean, not that I know anything about us being clones, just like, hypothetically, if that were true, would you know anything?" Sarah mocked.

"He has to go back to McGonagall to give her his report on you, right?" Felix asked, rolling his eyes at Sarah's sarcastic response.

"Oh yeah! No, that's genius Felix! He'll probably go right after detention, you can follow him and try to eavesdrop on their conversation!" Cosima said.

"Why do I have to be the one to do it?" Sarah asked

"Because you're the one who landed herself in detention," Alison said, annoyed her sister couldn't keep out of trouble on the first day of school.

"Fine. I'll do it. On one condition though,"

"This is about all of us, this is important Sarah, why do you need an incentive to figure out what's going on here?" Cosima asked.

"Because I'm the one wasting more time than I already had to in detention, to figure this out _for all of us_, the least you can do is give me something in return,"

"What is it?" Alison asked, sighing.

"I need someone to write my Defense Against the Dark Arts paper."

"Fine. Whatever, just, try to figure out everything you can, and I'll write your stupid essay," said Cosima earning a smile from Sarah.

"Well, now that's all settled, I really should getting some studying done before lunch," Alison said, moving up from her desk.

"It's the first day of school, and we just found out you're all clones commissioned by the Dark Lord himself and you're worried about studying?" Felix asked.

"Yes, I am, and so should you. In fact, I think the three of us," she said, motioning towards Cosima, "should all go study together. I know Sarah has something she wants to talk to Helena about."

Alison grabbed Cosima and Felix and began forcibly removing them from the room.

"Shite Alison, right now?" Sarah whispered to her as she walked past her.

"Yes. Talk to her. Now." Alison said, dragging a guilty Cosima and Felix with her.

"What is it Sestra?" Helena asked.

Sarah shifted in her seat and braced herself for the conversation she was about to have.

"Alison told me, that you've been hurting yourself," Sarah said carefully. Helena's eyes widened and she immediately broke eye contact with her sister, instead choosing to stare intently at the floor, as if there were some message hidden in the stone that she had to uncover.

"What's going on with you Helena? What are your nightmares about? Do you want to talk about it?" Sarah asked uncrossing her legs and planting one foot on the floor.

Helena shifted uncomfortably, still not making eye contact with her sister. After a few moments she began speaking very quietly. "Tomas says there is something dark inside me, like Professor Woman said. He does not like it, he does not like me."

"Tomas, your father? Has he hurt you, Helena?" Sarah asked urgently, moving to sit next to her sister, putting her arm around her and looking into her now teary eyes. Helena's lip quivered as she slowly nodded her head.

Sarah wrapped her other arm around Helena, pulling her into a full hug while the blonde girl cried into her shoulder. At first Sarah seemed shocked, but slowly a fire began burning behind her eyes. "That's what your nightmares are about," Sarah said in realization, anger tingeing her voice ever so slightly. Sarah took a deep breath, hugging Helena tighter before she said, "you're not going back there. I'll talk to Mrs. S, I'll talk to Dumbledore, they can't send you back there if he's hurting you. You can come live with me and Fee, yea?"

Helena looked up at Sarah, eyes wide and quickly nodding, "thank you Sestra," she said before leaning back into the hug.

Cosima hardly payed attention in her afternoon classes, her mind consumed with the mystery of her and her sister's creation. By dinner time, however, all thoughts of cloning were put aside as she remembered the study date she had with Delphine that afternoon. Well, not a date-date, she thought to herself, blushing at the way she had phrased it in her own head.

Cosima was bisexual, she had realized it shortly after she had met Delphine in charms the year before. She knew her sisters would accept this about her, they would love her no matter what, but she hadn't yet built up the nerve to officially "come out". She was awkward and scared, as most teenagers are, and she knew that even if her sisters accepted her, there would always be people who wouldn't, and that fear often kept her up at night. The fear that strangers would feel her love life was open for debate, that her feelings were something that could be scrutinized and dismissed by people who had no way of knowing how she felt, that scared her.

She was willing to face all of that for Delphine though. She was willing to ignore judging looks from strangers, debates about her rights, she was willing to do anything for the beautiful French girl, with the perfect curls, and infectious smile. The girl who made her laugh even when she was sad, the girl she could have talk to about all her weird, geeky interests without fear of judgment, the girl who's intelligence matched her own. Cosima had fallen hard for Delphine, and she knew it.

So when she made her way up to the library to meet her, she forgot all about the cloning conspiracy, and all about her worries for Helena, her smile growing with each step she took. Today was the day Cosima Niehaus was going to make a move on the girl she had been in love with since last year.

She found Delphine at a table near the back of the library waiting for her, and she sat down, nervously laughing at the blonde girl's comment about the her finally being on time to something.

"You must be anxious to see me," Delphine said with a crooked smile on her face.

Cosima laughed again in response, unable to find a reply.

"Are you going to get out your book?"

"Oh, shit, yeah, of course," Cosima said, quickly reaching into her bag for her Herbology book and setting it on the table with a loud thump.

Cosima didn't say much else during that study session, looking at Delphine more than her book, and quickly agreeing with everything the girl said. The study session lasted for about another hour until the girls began packing there things, promising to meet up again in a few days to do some more studying.

"You seem distracted today, did something happen? Is everything okay?" Delphine asked, concern for her study buddy appearing on her face as they left the library together.

"Yeah, yeah, it's just uh-" Cosima said, stopping in her tracks and turning to Delphine, causing her to do the same.

"What is it?" Delphine asked, as they stood alone in the middle of an aisle of library books.

Cosima looked at Delphine for a moment, biting her lip nervously before she leaned in, raising herself on her tip toes to capture Delphine's lips with her own. After a few seconds, Delphine slowly leaned away, breaking the kiss.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," Cosima said, panic in her voice.

"Non, non, I just, um-" Delphine stumbled, backing away with a trace of guilt in her eyes.

"Let's just, forget it ever happened, okay?" Cosima said, taking a tiny, involuntary step towards Delphine as she continued backing away.

"I should, uh, go," Delphine said.

"Uh, yeah, okay, of course," replied Cosima, sadness entering her eyes as she watched her nervously turn and leave.

Cosima leaned up against the wall of books, sighing and trying to force back tears as she realized what a horrible mistake she had made.

Of all the punishments she could be doing during detentions, writing lines seems like the worst possibility, thought Sarah. Hell, she heard Potter and his friends once had to wander the Forbidden Forest at night for detention, and that seemed like a better option. Writing lines was the most mind dulling punishment imaginable, and being forced to write "I must not tell lies" was a pretty big blow to her pride.

Even so, Sarah begrudgingly got out her quill, figuring if she fought back she might have to stay longer, and then she wouldn't be able to follow "The Chosen One" to his sketchy meeting with her head of house. She was interrupted, however, when the ever-so-pink Umbridge informed her captives that they would be using a "special quill". This didn't sound good to Sarah, and she quickly realized it didn't feel too good either.

She began writing on the paper, without ink, as she had been instructed, and she felt a sting in her hand as the words carved themselves into her flesh. She let out a small squeak, which she quickly realized was not very punk rock of her, and she looked over at Harry who was experiencing the same problems. Both Gryffindors looked up at Umbridge, appalled at her barbaric choice of punishment. The woman quirked an eyebrow as if to say "is there something wrong?" and they both tightened their grips on their quills, refusing to suffer through any more pride swallowing, and continued writing their sentences.

Sarah quickly regained her punk rock visage, and not another sound came from her mouth the entire time, her teeth grinding to block any cry of pain that might emanate from her vocal chords.

When detention was over, they left the classroom and headed into the hallway, stopping to look at each other before deciding not to talk about what had just happened. Sarah turned and headed in the direction of the Gryffindor common room, and Harry quickly realized he'd have to explain why he wasn't headed there too.

Thinking quickly, with his brain, Harry managed, "I've got uh, some- there's a thing- I'll see you later," he stumbled, walking the other direction, realizing his not only weak, but nonexistent excuse wasn't going to fool Sarah, but knowing she probably wouldn't question him, as Sarah was never the type to pry into other people's business too much.

"Whatever, Scarface," Sarah said, slowly continuing her walk to the common room until she knew Harry was out of her sight.

Slowly, she turned around and began following Harry, like the world's worst ninja. Harry didn't seem to notice, however, and she followed him all the way to McGonagall's office, putting her ear against the door after it was closed.

"Harry, how was detention?" asked the Professor's voice, and Sarah wondered briefly if he would tell her about the brutal punishment they endured.

"It was fine, we just wrote sentences,"

"And did you notice anything strange about Ms. Manning?"

"Well, no, but it was detention, we just sat there in silence, I don't know how you expect me to figure out anything like that, and honestly, she's been in my house for years, I haven't noticed anything that strange about her before, other than her music taste. She listens to The Clash, have you ever heard of a witch or wizard listening to muggle punk music? I mean bloody hell even for muggles that's a little-"

"That's not important, Potter. I need you to continue to keep an eye on her, she may seem normal now, but sometimes it takes time for you to truly see what type of person someone is. Come back and talk to me if you notice anything strange about her."

"What is this even about? You said she was created unnaturally by Voldemort? What does that even mean, why would Voldemort create her?"

"I told you before, Potter, I can't tell you anymore, The Order ruled long ago that this be kept a secret, for their own safety."

"What does The Order of the Phoenix have to do with this? Bloody hell, I'm _The Chosen One_, shouldn't I have a right to know?"

"Arrogance does not suit you, Potter, this is for your safety, as well as theirs. You will do as I asked?"

"Fine, I'll keep an eye on her."

"Thank you, now you should head off to your common room, it's going to be past curfew soon."

Sarah took off running before she could hear anymore, determined not to get caught eavesdropping. She quickly panted the password at the Fat Lady and ran up to her dormitory, ignoring the crowd of Gryffindors in the common room. She sat on her bed, going over the things she had heard in her head. Most of it was just a repeat of the last conversation, but the Order of the Phoenix, that was something new, it didn't tell her anything about why they were created, but it was something, she was sure Cosima could dig into it further and get more information.

She was brought back into the present however, as she felt the stinging of her hand. She quickly wrapped it up in some cloth after performing a simple cleaning spell on it, in only three tries. She lay back in her bed, sighing as she realized that she would have even more of these excruciating detentions in her future, and then remembering what she had just found out about Helena earlier that day, and after awhile she finally fell into a nervous sleep.

Delphine slowly walked away from the castle in the dark, knowing it was past curfew. Eventually, she reached the building tucked in the center of various greenhouses, opening the door and stepping inside to the office, dimly lit by floating candles.

"Hello Ms. Cormier, any news on Cosima?" asked Professor Aldous Leekie, stepping out from behind his desk.


End file.
